SA prime hunting ground for Rebels
Fri, 26 Feb 2010 09:15
There will be no holding back by the Melbourne Rebels as they cast their recruitment net far and wide, and South Africa will be prime hunting ground to bolster their forward stocks.
AAP reports that Rebels' head coach Rod Macqueen has made it clear that both in terms of marquee players, as well as young South Africans who could qualify to play for the Wallabies, potential recruits were already being assessed.
With the Australian Rugby Union (ARU) announcing this week that the deadline for its domestic player transfer deadline for all franchises had been brought forward to March 15, the Rebels have been linked with a number of Australian players including Waratahs' flyhalf Daniel Halangahu and lock David Dennis, as well as former Wallaby skipper Stirling Mortlock, who looks set to leave the Brumbies.
With quality props in short supply in Australia, Macqueen said they were looking for recruits in South Africa, where there are almost half a million registered players.
"Certainly in some of the signings of marquee players there are some opportunities for us there in South Africa," Macqueen told AAP.
"There's no doubt that one of the issues Australian rugby's got is that we don't have a lot of depth in that area."
The 1999 World Cup-winning coach said the Rebels had scouts on the ground in South Africa, while he already had a good insight into the player talent in the country.
He ruled out Argentina as a source of players because their best were already earning huge contracts in Europe.
Macqueen reiterated that Australian players were his priority but said in the longer term the Rebels would look to recruit younger South Africans, who could then qualify to play for the Wallabies after fulfilling residency requirements.
"From Melbourne's perspective, in the longer term that would be absolutely be on our radar because there's certainly a lot of ex-pat South Africans in Melbourne and there are a lot of people looking at emigrating so we'd be silly not to think that that's an opportunity for us in the future."
Melbourne have only signed one player, former English flyhalf Danny Cipriani. However they have already declared their intention to play the 22-year-old at fullback.
That would leave plenty of room in the line-up for Halangahu, or Wallaby vice-captain Berrick Barnes, who sits near the top of their wish-list.
"Nothing's in concrete but at this stage, that's the discussions we've had with him," Macqueen said of Cipriani.
"Playing five-eighth [flyhalf] has certainly been his perspective in the past, but we're going to be playing the game quite differently and that's why I think Danny's got an open mind."
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